Local stories, guides & community reads

If you're a small business owner, freelancer or just someone who works for yourself, there's a free networking night coming up in downtown Beaumont.

Trying to figure out where to take the kids trick-or-treating this year? We found 44 trunk-or-treats, fall festivals and Halloween candy stops happening around Southeast Texas from Saturday, October 17 through Halloween night on Saturday, October 31.

Greek plates on Calder, birria pizza in Orange, a four-shop strip in Port Neches and a bookstore with 270 opening-day checkouts: 13 new SETX openings, plus five on the way.

Brisket boudin in Beaumont, gumbo by the gallon in Nederland, pho in Port Arthur and homemade pie in Orange: 19 Southeast Texas restaurants with addresses and hours.

Shangri La, the Stark Museum and the Stark House all cost nothing, and Orange runs on a Tuesday-to-Saturday clock. Eleven things to do, with every hour and price checked against the venue itself.

Free professional headshots from Emerie Photography, food from Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen, and a room full of people building things. Thursday, August 20, 2026, 6 to 8 PM at The Forge, 268 Pearl Street in downtown Beaumont.

Spindletop, 450 alligators, a 900-acre marsh boardwalk and six attractions that cost nothing, with every hour and admission price re-checked against the venue's own site this month.

Southeast Texas has no shortage of things to do on the weekend. What it doesn't have is a reliable list of what's actually open, so we checked all 25, one at a time.

Sea Rim State Park's 15,000 acres, the Museum of the Gulf Coast, Cajun seafood at Rodair and Reel Cajun, Sabine Lake fishing, and the spring-migration birding trails at Sabine Woods.